Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt believes British sprint prodigy Adam Gemili
should go to the London Olympics — if he has the mental strength to handle
it.

Gemili, 18, made a stunning 100 metres breakthrough last weekend when he clocked 10.08sec to become the second fastest British junior of all time and the quickest sprinter in Britain this year, but he faces a dilemma over whether to stick to his original plan of competing at next month’s World Junior Championships in Barcelona or concentrate on London 2012.

But Bolt warned that the teenager needed to think carefully about whether he was ready to make the step up.

“It all depends on his mental state,” said Bolt. “If he’s not mentally strong, then I don’t think he should try for the Olympics, but if he’s mentally strong, why not? Why not give it a try because if he’s running 10.08 and he’s mentally strong, then that’s very good and he’s faster than a lot of professional athleteson the circuit.

“Anything is possible. You’ve just got to know whether he can handle it because sometimes if you go up against top athletes it can mess you up mentally and then it could set you back a couple of years.”

Bolt, who competes at Thursday night’s Bislett Games in his final 100m race before the Jamaican Olympic trials, has bitter experience of how difficult the transition from junior to senior level can be.

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After becoming the youngest ever junior world champion when he won the 200m crown in Kingston in 2002 at the age of 15, it took him another five years before he won a senior championship medal — a 200m silver at the World Championships in Osaka.

“The reason why it took so long for me was because I got injured most of the time in my transition to being a senior,” said Bolt. “I got a rude awakening when I got on to the circuit because I was beating the seniors in Jamaica when I started out, and then when I got on the circuit I was losing every race.

“That threw me off a little bit but I got a great coach and he explained everything to me. On the circuit, everyone has got great talent. It’s all about who harnesses that talent and trains hard and develops it in the way that he can perform to his best. For me, it was kind of shaky at first but my coach really helped me through.

Gemili, a former footballer who was on the books of Chelsea, Reading and Dagenham and Redbridge until he decided to concentrate on athletics in January, says he will make a decision on the Olympics after discussing the options with his coach, Michael Afilaka, and UK Athletics.

Afilaka has already warned of the danger of overloading young athletes — something that Bolt has experienced at first hand.

“When I started out, in 2004 I was injured. In ’06 I was injured, and then in ’07 I started to come up. It takes time to get better. It took me three years to really get into my stride when I got into the seniors.”